Upcoming Kabuki Schedules

The old Kabuki-za, as seen in 2008.

Shôchiku has just announced the programs for the first several months of shows at the rebuilt (renovated) Kabuki-za, scheduled to open in April 2013, including, of course, some rather special performances for the occasion. Sadly, I won’t be able to see the shows in April or May, but I am very much hoping to make it out to Tokyo in June or July. In total, there will be a full year of these kokera otoshi performances, celebrating the opening of the new theatre.

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The April program opens, appropriately, with a celebratory Crane dance called Kakuju senzai (鶴寿千歳), performed to welcome the new Kabuki-za, and to mark its opening in an auspicious manner. I had the pleasure, in January 2008, of seeing this dance performed by the late Nakamura Jakuemon, then the oldest kabuki actor still-active; he passed away earlier this year at the age of 91.

The program then continues with Omatsuri (lit. “Festival”), a piece often performed in celebration of the return to the stage of an actor who has been long absent due to illness. This April, however, it will be performed in honor, in memory, of the late, great, Nakamura Kanzaburô, who passed away earlier this month.

Other pieces to be performed in April include, among other pieces:
*Kumagai Jin’ya, featuring Tamasaburô, and Kataoka Nizaemon as Yoshitsune
*Benten Kozô (Hamamatsu-ya through riverside scenes, the most common selections), featuring Kikugorô as Benten Kozô and Danjûrô as Nippon Daemon, a one-two punch I have had the pleasure of seeing before.
*Kanjinchô, with Kôshirô as Benkei, Baigyoku as Yoshitsune, and Kikugorô as Togashi

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Of course, the sense of which plays are “big name,” or to put it more truthfully, which plays I have personally heard of, is exceedingly subjective. Nevertheless, for what it is worth, the May performances are almost exclusively those with which I am familiar:
*Tsurukame, an auspicious crane & turtle dance.
*The Terakoya scene from Sugawara Denju Tenarai Kagami
*Sannin Kichisa, starring Danjûrô, Kikugorô, and Nizaemon as the three Kichisas.
*Meiboku Sendai Hagi, also known as The Ten Roles of the House of Date (Date no jûyaku), a play featuring the sorcerer Nikki Danjô, and a giant rat. I’ve never seen this play, but have seen it referenced countless times in ukiyo-e prints. Featuring Matsumoto Kôshirô as the sorcerer, and Sakata Tôjûrô as Masaoka. This play is famous for featuring a single actor in ten roles, performing numerous quick-changes between characters, though I am unclear as to which actor will be the one to do this.
*Kuruwa Bunshô, feat. Nizaemon and Tamasaburô
*Dôjôji, a most special opportunity to see the great onnagata Tamasaburô in the leading role

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Finally (for now), the June performances, which I just might get to see, include:
*Shunkan, a story based on the 1177 Shishigatani Incident, in which the monk Shunkan is exiled to a remote island.
*and, Sukeroku, one of the most popular plays, and one which I’m really glad to have seen, though it would be wonderful if they were showing a big-name show I have not yet seen in person, such as Ise Ondo.

A 1962 performance of Sukeroku, featuring Ichikawa Danjûrô XI as Sukeroku, and Nakamura Utaemon VI as Agemaki.

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Meanwhile, the Kanamaru-za in Kagawa Prefecture, Shikoku – the oldest still-operating kabuki theatre in the world – hosts performances only in April every year. This year, the shows include shûmei performances for Ichikawa Ennosuke IV, formerly Ichikawa Kamejirô, who took on that name roughly six months ago, as Ichikawa Ennosuke III became Ichikawa En’ô. I don’t know if this will be his first performance, his debut, in the role of the fox Tadanobu in Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura, a role for which the former Ennosuke is quite famous, but in any case, debut or not, the afternoon program this coming April at the Kanamaru-za includes scenes from Yoshitsune, with Ennosuke in that role. The evening program includes a formal announcement (kôjô, 口上) of his name-taking (shûmei), along with Kyô ningyô and Ôshû Adachigahara, two pieces with which I am not familiar, though I’m sure they’re great.

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Kabuki DVDs

It’s time to get 2011 started on the right foot, with a blog post about Kabuki!!

For anyone who has been to Japan (actually, let me qualify that – anyone from the US or certain other countries not including the UK), you’ve seen how absurdly expensive DVDs are there. A movie that might cost $15-20 here in the US will typically cost 3500-4000 yen (read: roughly $35-40, give or take a bit for fluctuations in the exchange rate). Now, Brits who are used to paying upwards of £20 for a DVD might think nothing of this, but that’s double the price I’m used to.

Sadly, DVDs of kabuki performances are even more expensive. This copy of Sukeroku Yukari no Edo-zakura is currently going for nearly 4000 yen on Amazon.jp, marked down from nearly 5000. Count in shipping and the obligatory markup, and you can be guaranteed to be seeing pricetags for roughly $60, if not more, for these DVDs at the Kiinokuniya on 41st and 6th.

A terrible shame, really, as I would love to own a collection of kabuki performances on DVD.

But, ranting aside, I just found out this morning about three kabuki-related DVDs or DVD sets that I wish I could afford.

First is a ridiculously huge box set of the 16 months of “sayonara” performances produced in anticipation of the closing of the Kabuki-za in April 2010 and its subsequent demolition. They look like really nice sets, with full-color booklets, and hopefully a fair number of other extras. Each of eight volumes covers (presumably) two months of performances, so, roughly 12 plays – three in the afternoon, three in the evening, times two months – and costs a whopping 26,250 yen (US$323.24 at the moment according to Google’s exchange rate calculator). Or you can buy the whole set for 210,000 yen ($2,585). Or, you can do what I’m going to do, and just sit here and cry about it. … There is the possibility of the university library acquiring such a thing, though I don’t believe I can in good conscience put in a request or recommendation for it, given the library’s limited budget.

Maybe someday, I’ll get really lucky and just happen upon these at a flea market, or in a clearance bin somewhere, secondhand at BookOff or something (though even at BookOff, even second-hand, Japanese DVDs tend to be upwards of $30…).

The second DVD I’m looking forward to getting my hands on is that of “Ô-Edo no Living Dead.” I remember back in 2007, when the Heisei Nakamura-za came and performed in New York and Washington DC (so hoping they’ll come again soon…), I read in an interview with Nakamura Shichinosuke (I think it was; unless it was his brother), that he was thinking of putting together a kabuki play about zombies. That is to say, an adaptation of the zombie movie to the kabuki stage. And, here it is. One of a great many plays to be shown in movie theatres throughout the country and released on DVD as part of the “Cinema Kabuki” series, it was released in theatres in Japan this past October, and should be coming out on DVD any day now… Enjoy the trailer for it, below:

Finally, Waga kokoro no Kabuki-za (The Kabuki-za of Our Hearts), a documentary about the history of the Kabuki-za, the chief kabuki theatre in the world, which closed this past April and was subsequently demolished; construction is underway on the fourth incarnation of the theatre, if I’m counting correctly, which was originally established in 1889, and has been destroyed in the past by earthquake and fire, and by Allied bombs, but never before intentionally in this manner.

This opens in theatres in Japan on January 15, so it may be some time before we see the DVD (that is, as if it matters – I’m sure they’ll be asking too much money for it).

I think it could be quite fun and quite fascinating to see the top actors talking about their memories and experiences and thoughts, to get a peek behind the scenes, and just to feel a part, in whatever tiny way, of having experienced being there – vicariously through the video – as this incarnation of the Kabuki-za prepared to shut its doors for the last time.

The trailer:

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Kabuki at Sadler’s Wells this June!

I totally wish I could be there to see it, and totally regret missing out on kabuki when it was in Paris a few years back. Ichikawa Ebizô will head a troupe offering 12 performances of Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura (“Yoshitsune and the Thousand Cherry Trees”), one of the most popular/famous of all kabuki plays, and easily one of my favorites.

It’s got everything one could ask for – samurai heroes Yoshitsune and Benkei, the ghosts of the Taira clan, a princess, a magical fox spirit, some awesome fight scenes…

(A scene from the play, from a recent performance in Osaka. Videorecording is not allowed in the theatre, and I neither encourage nor condone it, but am happy to be able to share this with you.)

And the prices seem quite reasonable, too, tickets ranging from £12 – £52.

There will be earphone guides available, but for the full experience, ditch the distracting headphones, and listen to the real thing. You’ll have no trouble understanding it because you will have read the synopsis at Kabuki21.com, or the full text as translated by Stanleigh Jones.

More details at Sadler’s Wells sleek website.

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Meanwhile, as the Kabuki-za is being destroyed next month, they are turning the roof tiles, bearing the crest of the theatre, into clocks, and putting them up for sale to the fans! I would *love* to have one, to have a real actual piece of the old Kabuki-za, but at 3万円 (about US$300), I’ll pass.

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